Reuters – China’s pork output in 2022 increased 4.6 per cent from 2021 to reach its highest since 2014, official data showed Jan. 17. The data confounded some expectations for a smaller rise.
Pork output in the world’s top producer of the meat reached 55.41 million tonnes, the highest since eight years ago, when 56.71 million tonnes of production were recorded. The 2022 output compared with 52.96 million tonnes in 2021.
Output was boosted by high fourth-quarter production of 13.91 million tonnes, according data drawn from the National Bureau of Statistics. That was up 0.87 per cent from the earlier quarter, despite a shortage of slaughterhouse labour due to COVID-19 outbreaks.
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Part of that increase may be linked to farmers producing heavier hogs, as they hoped to benefit from an anticipated recovery in demand and prices.
A rally in prices over the summer encouraged farmers to fatten pigs more than normal to increase their profits.
However, demand remained tepid because of surging COVID-19 cases in China that kept many people at home. Prices plunged.
“Feed production has been weak throughout 2022 and we have also seen this reflected in the lower yearly soybean import number. It is difficult to reconcile this higher meat production number with the declines seen in feed production and soybean imports,” said Darin Friedrichs, co-founder of Shanghai-based agriculture consultancy Sitonia Consulting.
The data shows that China’s pork production has increased every quarter year-on-year for the last two years, despite sluggish demand.
“I haven’t heard there’s much storage, so it needs to be consumed already, which is difficult to explain,” said another livestock analyst, declining to be identified because of the sensitivity of questioning official data.
Though average weight of live pigs has recently declined, per pig weigh-ins were still on the high side at about 124.5 kilograms in the second week of January, according to analysts at Huachuang Agriculture.
That will continue to pressure prices, according to a Jan. 15 note.
Meat consumption is set to improve after China’s re-opening from a strict three-year COVID-19 policy, with more group dining and business gatherings to support demand.
